Medical Physics and Bioengineering MPhil/PhD

Key Information

Modes and duration

Full-time: 3 years

Tuition Fees (2015/16)

UK/EU:

£4,635 (FT)

Overseas:

£21,530 (FT)

Application deadlines

Research degrees may start at any time of the year, but typically start in September. Deadlines and start dates are usually dictated by funding arrangements so check with the department or academic unit (contact listed in Next steps, right) to see if you need to consider these in your application preparation. In most cases you should identify and contact potential supervisors before making your application. For more information see our How to apply page.

Entry Requirements

A minimum of an upper second-class UK Bachelor’s degree in Physics, Engineering, Computer Science, Mathematics, or another closely related discipline, or an overseas qualification of an equivalent standard. Knowledge and expertise gained in the workplace may also be considered, where appropriate.

English Language Requirements

If your education has not been conducted in the English language, you will be expected to demonstrate evidence of an adequate level of English proficiency.

International students

Country-specific information, including details of when UCL representatives are visiting your part of the world, can be obtained from the International Students website.

International applicants can find out the equivalent qualification for their country by selecting from the list below.

Select your country:

International equivalencies

Research areas

Biomedical optics

Biomedical Ultrasound

Computing, digital image processing

Continence and skin technology

Functional electrical stimulation

Implanted devices

Laser and endoscopic surgery

Magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy

Medical imaging including 3D graphics

Neurophysiology including electrical impedance tomography

Physiological sensing

Radiation physics

Funding

Scholarships relevant to this department are displayed below. For a comprehensive list of the funding opportunities available at UCL, including funding relevant to your nationality, please visit the Scholarships and Funding website.

Careers

As a multi-disciplinary subject at the interface of physics, engineering, life sciences and computer science, our postgraduate students have a diverse range of options upon graduation. Many choose to continue in academia through the subsequent award of a PhD studentship or a postdoctoral research post, either at UCL or another university. Another common career route is employment in industry where newly-acquired skills are applied to science and engineering projects within multi-national medical device companies, or alternatively, within small-scale start-up enterprises. A substantial number of graduates also enter the NHS or private healthcare sector to work as a clinical scientist or engineer upon completion of further clinical training.

Top career destinations for this degree

Research Associate, University of Cambridge (2011)

Applied Physicist, Nikon Metrology (2011)

Postdoctoral Fellow, UCL (2011)

Researcher, UCLH (2010)

Research Scientist, Phillips Research (2009)

Employability

Postgraduate study within the department offers the chance to develop important skills and acquire new knowledge through involvement with a team of scientists or engineers working in a world-leading research group. Graduates complete their study having gained new scientific or engineering skills applied to solving problems at the leading edge of human endeavour. Skills associated with project management, effective communication and teamwork are also refined in this high-quality working environment.

Networking

Supervision and mentorship are available from world-leading scientists and engineers who have collaborate nationally and internationall across clinical, industrial and academic sectors. This provides natural opportunities to work in collaboration with a variety of external partners and showcase output at international conferences, private industry events and clinical centres to audiences of potential employers. Moreover, the department holds close working relationships with a number of charitable, research council and international organisations, for example, in new projects involving radiotherapy and infant optical brain imaging in Africa.

Why study this degree at UCL?

Degree reviews

Staff review

"UCL in itself, with its amazingly diversified biomedical research, is an endless source of ideal collaborators, most of which are world leading. There are by far more interesting projects than there is time to be able to carry them out."

Dr Alessandro Olivo

Subject: I am the module organiser for Imaging with Ionizing Radiation for our Physics and Engineering in Medicine MSc, which has a number of different streams. Like most academics in the department, I also offer a number of student projects for the same programme. I supervise quite a few PhD students, and I am one of the supervisors on the Medical and Biomedical Imaging Doctoral Training Programme.

Alumni review

"The contacts I made through UCL Medical Physics & Bioengineering, in which I studied, provided numerous opportunities for career progression. I chose to follow a career in industry, but remaining in academia or working in healthcare were also very plausible options."

Dr Ben Price

Subject: Medical Physics PhD

Student review

"The access to industry I have gained at UCL has been particularly valuable: I managed to secure funding from the UCL Graduate School to spend one month in a proton therapy centre in the USA. This was vital as part of my work as we currently do not have such facilities or expertise in the UK. "

Paul Doolan

Subject: Medical Physics PhD

Application and next steps

Applications

Students are advised to apply as early as possible due to competition for places. Those applying for scholarship funding (particularly overseas applicants) should take note of application deadlines.

Who can apply?

Application deadlines

Research degrees may start at any time of the year, but typically start in September. Deadlines and start dates are usually dictated by funding arrangements so check with the department or academic unit (contact listed in Next steps, right) to see if you need to consider these in your application preparation. In most cases you should identify and contact potential supervisors before making your application. For more information see our How to apply page.